The measure was said to be aimed at holding “accountable Iranian officials and institutions” over the riots that took place in Iran in November 2019.

Iran has time and again asserted that the US is in no position to comment on human rights issues in the country.

“A regime whose president proudly issues the order to assassinate the most decent children of Iran, and his accomplices… shamelessly host the most hated anti-Iran terrorist groups and attend their meetings, has nothing to do with the elevated concept of human rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said as the US State Department’s annual report on Iran’s human rights situation was released on March 11, 2020, referencing the US assassination of the Middle East’s most prominent anti-terror commander General Qassem Suleimani and its support for the MKO group, which Washington has removed from its list of terrorist organizations.

Tensions have soared between Iran and the US since President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries consisting of the United States, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany, and reimposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).